Amos 8:9-12

9 “In that day,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.

10 I will turn your religious festivals into mourning and all your singing into weeping. I will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

11 “The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.

12 People will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it.

Amos 8:9-12 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO AMOS 8

In this chapter a fourth vision is delivered, the vision of a "basket of summer fruit"; signifying the destruction of the ten tribes, for which they were ripe, and which would quickly come upon them, Am 8:1-3; the rich are reproved for their oppression of the poor, their covetousness and earthly mindedness, Am 8:4-6; for which they are threatened with entire ruin, sudden calamities, and very mournful times, instead of light, joy, and gladness, Am 8:7-10; and particularly with a famine of hearing the word of God, Am 8:11,12; the consequence of which would be, a fainting of the young men and virgins for thirst, and the utter and irrecoverable ruin of all idolaters, Am 8:13,14.

Cross References

• 1. S Job 5:14; Isaiah 59:9-10; Jeremiah 13:16; Jeremiah 15:9; S Ezekiel 32:7; S Amos 5:8; Micah 3:6; Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44-45
• 2. S Leviticus 26:31
• 3. S Lamentations 5:15; S Hosea 2:11
• 4. S Joel 1:8; Jeremiah 48:37
• 5. S Leviticus 13:40; S Isaiah 3:17
• 6. S Genesis 21:16; Jeremiah 6:26; Zechariah 12:10
• 7. S Jeremiah 2:19; S Ezekiel 7:18
• 8. Jeremiah 30:3; Jeremiah 31:27
• 9. S Isaiah 30:20
• 10. S 1 Samuel 3:1; S 1 Samuel 28:6; S 2 Chronicles 15:3; Ezekiel 7:26
• 11. S Ezekiel 20:3,31